Roger Goodell Comments on Changes to Extra-Point Rule

On Tuesday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell deemed that the first year of the new 33-yard extra point was a success, per Pro Football Talk's Michael David Smith.

More changes could be on the way, as Goodell addressed while speaking to the media:

From a competitive standpoint, this season, more games were decided by one score than ever in our history. That led to great competition and the average margin of victory lower than any time in our history. We’ll continue to try to make the game more exciting as we did this last year with the extra point.

Per Smith, the extra-point success rate did go down from 99.3 percent in 2014 when it was 20 yards to 94.2 in 2015. It subsequently raised the number of two-point attempts from 58 two years ago to 94.

The new distance had a huge effect on the AFC Championship Game. After New England Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski missed an extra point earlier in the game, the Patriots, down 20-18, were forced to go for two after scoring a touchdown that would have tied the game in the last seconds of regulation.

The Broncos defense stopped New England's two-point conversion, and Denver was off to Super Bowl 50. It doesn't get more exciting than that, which is what Goodell wanted.

In one of the toughest, most grueling sports in the world, nothing should be automatic in the way the extra point used to be. Moving it back ensured that kickers weren't going to be handed a point.

Goodell didn't delve into what other aspects of the game he would look into tweaking; however, he did mention to the media before the Super Bowl that he would like to see a rule where two personal fouls against one player in a contest would result in an ejection:

While that might not make the game more exciting, it would raise the stakes of things if, for example, a big-name player is kicked out of the game because of his own behavior. However, as the offseason progresses, there will surely be more rule changes suggested.